Gervasio Sánchez
29 Jan - 05 Jun 2011
GERVASIO SÁNCHEZ
Desaparecidos
Curator: Sandra Balsells
MUSAC Coordinator: Eneas Bernal
29 January - 5 June 2011
The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (León, Spain), the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) and La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain) shall simultaneously host the exhibition Desaparecidos by Gervasio Sánchez, an extensive documentary photography project focused on the issue of forced disappearances carried out in ten countries throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe where these acts of violence have taken place.
On the Desaparecidos project
Desaparecidos stands out as a compelling document against oblivion, intended to recover the buried memory of people missing as a result of different armed conflicts and repressive processes. The exhibition is presented in the form of a major cultural operation where, for the first time in Spain, three cities (León, Barcelona and Madrid) will host a photographic project on the same theme by the same author, though specific approaches and contents will vary.
The institutions involved in the operation are:
- MUSAC (León): 29 January to 5 June 2011;
- CCCB (Barcelona): 1 February to 1 May 2011;
- La Casa Encendida (Madrid): 2 February to 20 March 2011.
Each of these institutions will display a broad selection of unique photographs, under a truly innovative proposal. However, all three exhibitions shall adhere to a similar narrative structure, broken down into equivalent theme blocs and all three shall close with a meaningful Epilogue focused on Spain and the current process of locating and exhuming the remains of persons disappeared in the course of the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship.
The exhibition Desaparecidos, curated by Sandra Balsells, photojournalist and professor at Ramon Llull University, is structured around the following theme blocs:
• Facilities used for torturing and removing victims, including goals, detention centres, police stations and ‘chupaderos’
• Memorials erected to immortalise the memory of missing persons
• Portraits of relative of missing persons
• Objects belonging to missing persons
• The process of searching for missing persons
• The process of exhuming remains located in mass graves
• Storage facilities established to house the exhumed remains
• The task of identifying the exhumed remains, as carried out by forensic anthropologists
• Returning the identified remains to their families
• Burial processes
• Epilogue: Missing persons in Spain
The photographs on display include images taken in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Iraq, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Spain between 1998 and 2010.
The exhibition at MUSAC will also include the installation Crueldad y Dolor [Cruelty and Pain] by Gervasio Sánchez and Ricardo Calero (2004), held in the MUSAC Collection. The piece invites us to reflect upon the various forms of injustice that shape our social fabric, through an investigation of evidence regarding people and circumstances that are often sidelined by the dominant narrative, attaching a specific relevance to the issue of forced disappearances. The installation Crueldad y Dolor inquires into these potential forms of exclusion and offers an opening for remembrance and silence. The exhibition also includes a number of video documents taped by Gervasio Sánchez capturing the torture and detention centres, storage facilities housing the exhumed remains and individual testimonies given by victims’ relatives.
Gervasio Sánchez’s relationship with missing persons began in Guatemala in 1984, when he began his professional career as a freelance photographer specialising in armed conflict. From then on, Gervasio Sánchez has covered a number of armed conflicts and developed a range of long-term projects focusing on the victims. Over his 25-year long professional career, the issue of forced disappearances has been a constant in his work, leading him to make regular trips to counties affected by the problem. The exhibition Desaparecidos is Gervasio Sanchez’s largest and most broad-reaching project to date.
In line with the exhibitions, all three institutions will host sessions devoted to analysing and debating the phenomenon of forced disappearances, in addition to workshops with the photographer.
The publication
The exhibition Desaparecidos will be supported by the publication of a pack made up of two books and a DVD, published by Blume. The book Desaparecidos< includes a selection of the photographs featured at the three institutions that document different aspects of forced disappearances, while the book Víctimas del olvido includes portraits of missing persons’ relatives in a number of countries around the world. The video material projected at the three institutions will be presented as a DVD.
Gervasio Sánchez, author of the Desaparecidos project (Córdoba, 1959)
He began his career as a freelance photojournalist in 1984, specialising in armed conflict. A regular contributor to El Heraldo de Aragón and La Vanguardia newspapers and Cadena Ser, he has covered a number of conflicts over the past 25 years, particularly in Latin America, Africa and the Balkans. He has published a number of books of photographs: El Cerco de Sarajevo (1995), many with publishers Blume, Vidas Minadas (1997 y 2002); Kosovo, Crónica de la deportación (1999); Niños de la guerra (2000); La caravana de la muerte. Las víctimas de Pinochet (2002); Latidos del tiempo (2004), in collaboration with sculptor Ricardo Calero; Sierra Leona, guerra y paz (2005); Vidas Minadas, Diez años (2007); and Sarajevo, 1992-2008 (2009).
In 2001 he worked with Manuel Leguineche to coordinate the book Los ojos de la guerra, a tribute to Miguel Gil; and in 2004 he published the literary work Salvar a los niños soldados.
Since 1998 he is UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and since 2001 he directs the Photography and Journalism Seminar at Albarracín. The institutions of Aragon granted him the Gold Medal of St. Isabel of Portugal and the Medal to Professional Merit, as well as naming him adoptive son of Zaragoza.
He holds a number of prizes, including the Cirilo Rodríguez Award, the International Press Club, Andalucia Culture, Human Rights in Journalism, Liber Press, Javier Bueno, Ortega y Gasset Awards and the National Photography Prize 2009, amongst others.
Desaparecidos
Curator: Sandra Balsells
MUSAC Coordinator: Eneas Bernal
29 January - 5 June 2011
The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (León, Spain), the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) and La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain) shall simultaneously host the exhibition Desaparecidos by Gervasio Sánchez, an extensive documentary photography project focused on the issue of forced disappearances carried out in ten countries throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe where these acts of violence have taken place.
On the Desaparecidos project
Desaparecidos stands out as a compelling document against oblivion, intended to recover the buried memory of people missing as a result of different armed conflicts and repressive processes. The exhibition is presented in the form of a major cultural operation where, for the first time in Spain, three cities (León, Barcelona and Madrid) will host a photographic project on the same theme by the same author, though specific approaches and contents will vary.
The institutions involved in the operation are:
- MUSAC (León): 29 January to 5 June 2011;
- CCCB (Barcelona): 1 February to 1 May 2011;
- La Casa Encendida (Madrid): 2 February to 20 March 2011.
Each of these institutions will display a broad selection of unique photographs, under a truly innovative proposal. However, all three exhibitions shall adhere to a similar narrative structure, broken down into equivalent theme blocs and all three shall close with a meaningful Epilogue focused on Spain and the current process of locating and exhuming the remains of persons disappeared in the course of the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship.
The exhibition Desaparecidos, curated by Sandra Balsells, photojournalist and professor at Ramon Llull University, is structured around the following theme blocs:
• Facilities used for torturing and removing victims, including goals, detention centres, police stations and ‘chupaderos’
• Memorials erected to immortalise the memory of missing persons
• Portraits of relative of missing persons
• Objects belonging to missing persons
• The process of searching for missing persons
• The process of exhuming remains located in mass graves
• Storage facilities established to house the exhumed remains
• The task of identifying the exhumed remains, as carried out by forensic anthropologists
• Returning the identified remains to their families
• Burial processes
• Epilogue: Missing persons in Spain
The photographs on display include images taken in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Iraq, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Spain between 1998 and 2010.
The exhibition at MUSAC will also include the installation Crueldad y Dolor [Cruelty and Pain] by Gervasio Sánchez and Ricardo Calero (2004), held in the MUSAC Collection. The piece invites us to reflect upon the various forms of injustice that shape our social fabric, through an investigation of evidence regarding people and circumstances that are often sidelined by the dominant narrative, attaching a specific relevance to the issue of forced disappearances. The installation Crueldad y Dolor inquires into these potential forms of exclusion and offers an opening for remembrance and silence. The exhibition also includes a number of video documents taped by Gervasio Sánchez capturing the torture and detention centres, storage facilities housing the exhumed remains and individual testimonies given by victims’ relatives.
Gervasio Sánchez’s relationship with missing persons began in Guatemala in 1984, when he began his professional career as a freelance photographer specialising in armed conflict. From then on, Gervasio Sánchez has covered a number of armed conflicts and developed a range of long-term projects focusing on the victims. Over his 25-year long professional career, the issue of forced disappearances has been a constant in his work, leading him to make regular trips to counties affected by the problem. The exhibition Desaparecidos is Gervasio Sanchez’s largest and most broad-reaching project to date.
In line with the exhibitions, all three institutions will host sessions devoted to analysing and debating the phenomenon of forced disappearances, in addition to workshops with the photographer.
The publication
The exhibition Desaparecidos will be supported by the publication of a pack made up of two books and a DVD, published by Blume. The book Desaparecidos< includes a selection of the photographs featured at the three institutions that document different aspects of forced disappearances, while the book Víctimas del olvido includes portraits of missing persons’ relatives in a number of countries around the world. The video material projected at the three institutions will be presented as a DVD.
Gervasio Sánchez, author of the Desaparecidos project (Córdoba, 1959)
He began his career as a freelance photojournalist in 1984, specialising in armed conflict. A regular contributor to El Heraldo de Aragón and La Vanguardia newspapers and Cadena Ser, he has covered a number of conflicts over the past 25 years, particularly in Latin America, Africa and the Balkans. He has published a number of books of photographs: El Cerco de Sarajevo (1995), many with publishers Blume, Vidas Minadas (1997 y 2002); Kosovo, Crónica de la deportación (1999); Niños de la guerra (2000); La caravana de la muerte. Las víctimas de Pinochet (2002); Latidos del tiempo (2004), in collaboration with sculptor Ricardo Calero; Sierra Leona, guerra y paz (2005); Vidas Minadas, Diez años (2007); and Sarajevo, 1992-2008 (2009).
In 2001 he worked with Manuel Leguineche to coordinate the book Los ojos de la guerra, a tribute to Miguel Gil; and in 2004 he published the literary work Salvar a los niños soldados.
Since 1998 he is UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and since 2001 he directs the Photography and Journalism Seminar at Albarracín. The institutions of Aragon granted him the Gold Medal of St. Isabel of Portugal and the Medal to Professional Merit, as well as naming him adoptive son of Zaragoza.
He holds a number of prizes, including the Cirilo Rodríguez Award, the International Press Club, Andalucia Culture, Human Rights in Journalism, Liber Press, Javier Bueno, Ortega y Gasset Awards and the National Photography Prize 2009, amongst others.